Cucumber seedlings production: tray size impact on development

Abstract

The size of the tray in seedling production has a direct influence on the area of ​​root development and availability of resources, such as water as well as nutrients, with a potential impact on the seedling final quality. The objective of this work was to analyse the impact of the tray size on the development of cucumber seedlings. As such, this study was developed in two experiments: in the first, seedlings produced in trays with 50 and 128 cells were compared, while in the second, trays with 50, 98, and 128 cells were considered. For that, polyethylene trays and commercial substrate were used. The trays were kept in a greenhouse, and evaluations were carried out at 21 days after sowing. Morphological development and SPAD index were analysed. The data were submitted to ANOVA and the means compared by the Tukey test (0.05). Linear correlation was performed between the analysed variables. The best development of cucumber seedlings was obtained by adopting trays with 50 cells. Cucumber seedlings produced in trays with a higher number of cells show reduced development, mass accumulation and lower photosynthetic activity.